The Peculiar Crew of St Catalina
by outlandishUngulate
Summary: In the midst of the golden age of piracy, the crew aboard the St. Catalina are a bit odd. Their story is told though the memories of the captain, the proud Carmela Prieto. ( I got the idea for this from tumblr, "Pirates for the adventure, not the booty" This is an Asexual Pirate story)
1. Chapter 1

"Get up!"

Carmela sat up groggily and shifted her gaze to the man outside her cell. Who the hell did this man think he was? She may have been a prisoner residing in a cell in some small colony in the western hemisphere, but thats no excuse. She looked around the dingy, dark, disgusting cell, looked at the piss bucket in the corner and made a wry face. She may have lived on a pirate ship, but her standards were higher.

'Good thing I won't be here long.' she thought. 'But where is "here"'

"Oi! Did you not hear me? I said get up!"

"All right" Carmela mumbles as she rises from the dirty ground and dusts off her pants. Now that she is eye level with the _lovely_ gentleman outside, who is now unlocking her cell, she can get a good look at his face, he had a very round one, with beady green eyes, and gray hair with a matching beard. She also noticed how short he was, Carmela was very small herself, so see a man and being not that much shorter than him was a very rare happening.

The man opens the door and basically drags her out, grumbling something about his job and how he despises everyone.

'Damn, this guy needs a break,' Carmela almost pitied the man who was essentially hauling her to her demise. As the two were walking though the endless rows of prisoners and cells, her thoughts wondered to her friends, her crew mates, the only family she had. She reminisced all the laughter, the love, the sorrows. The stern women, only twenty-six years of age, hardened by several years on the unforgiving waters of the Atlantic Ocean, shed a tear in remembrance of her fallen comrades. However, she quickly composed herself as she exited the prison and saw the sun for the first time in, only the good Lord above knows how long. She looks around, sees the gallows, the gibbets, and the people who had come to watch.

'How morbid' Carmela grimaced as she stepped up onto the gallows. As the rope was placed around her neck, her mind wandered to every moment that put her in this unfortunate situation


	2. Chapter 2

1704 Cádiz,Spain

Running to her home, a little girl, about ten years of age, hoped her mother wouldn't notice the mud on her shoes or the light dust on her tanned skin. She had always been told that ladies of her status were not to leave the home, she thought that was quite dumb, who would want to live like that? Quietly sneaking inside, quite proud of herself for managing to sneak out, until she heard her mother's foot steps along the floor toward her.

"Carmela Abana Prieto, where have you been?" the older woman instantly began thrusting question after question at the young girl before she had time to answer a single one. Her mother sees the mud on her daughter's shoes and practically faints. "We have a dinner tonight with an esteemed family from Soria, get cleaned up immediately."

"Yes, Mother" Carmela sighed as her mother strode away to the garden. She then went up to her room to clean up and prepare herself for the dinner with the family from Soria. Carmela hated fancy dinner parties, she hated much of the posh life she lived. She wants to know what it would be like to be free from responsibility and confinement. She washes her face as she hears a tapping on her window.

"What on earth could that be?" She wondered as she wanders toward the window. Just outside is a friend, her very dear friend Mateo Alcala. He was young, about eight years old, and he worked with his mother on the property. Even if he was just a dependent, he is one of the closest people Carmela has. And now, he is staring up at her with big dark eyes and a many tiny stones in his hands and scattered around his feet.

" Mateo, what are you doing here, shouldn't you be working?" Carmela yelled.

"I came see you, flowers aren't that fun to be with." He huffs back as Carmela is running to her closet to get the rope of bedsheets she stole from the linen closet so she can sneak out through the window. Once on the ground Carmela looks at Mateo's face, his strangely short eyebrows, snub nose, his hair a dark curly mess. He certainly was a bit strange looking, but she didn't mind.

Carmela lays down in the grass and huffs some of her hair out of her eyes, Mateo tentatively sits down by her side.

"We should run away together" Carmela says out of the blue "We don't have to tell anyone, we could just leave." She turns her head toward her friend, "How does that sound?"

"What? Carmela, we can't run away, where would we go?"

"Anywhere we want, it would be an adventure. Oh, we could go to the west, my father is always talking of this place called the Caribbean, I would like to see it"

"Do you even know where it is? How would we even get there?" Mateo was always the more practical of the two, but he secretly wanted to leave this place, just like Carmela, he hated being confined to the garden, to the title of 'Gardener'.

"Well," She pauses "No, but we could figure out, that's part of the adventure"

"Okay" Mateo gives in.

"Are you serious?" Carmela stops, 'he can't be serious, he always plays it safe, doesn't want to get hurt'

"Yes, when do we leave for the Caribbean?"

"Really? How about, your fifteenth birthday, in seven years?"

"Sounds like a plan"


	3. Chapter 3

1711 Cádiz, Spain

"Carmelita, are you sure this is going to work?" Mateo, now a fifteen year old boy, looked up to Carmela's window, waiting for her to come down so they could fulfill the plan they made together that one day seven years ago.

"Oh Teo, you worry too much, I've been doing this since I was young" Carmela disappeared from the window to her closet where she grabbed her bed sheet rope she made from bed sheets she took out of the linen closet. Mateo looked around nervously, expecting someone to appear around the bushes, all of a sudden, the bed sheet rope cascaded down from the window, Mateo breathed a sigh of relied as he saw his friend climbing down.

"Carmela, ma'am, I was wondering where the linens went, I asked every one and..." one of the house maids came rushing into Carmela's room and sees the bed sheets tied together spanning from a bedpost through the open window. "Carmela, what hell are you doing? Get back in here now!"

Carmela starts climbing faster, but she was still a few feet from the ground, so she lets herself fall. As soon as she hits the ground she starts running, away from the house, pretty much everything she's ever known, for a new life. Mateo ran after her, all the while berating her for her recklessness. After a few minutes passed, Carmela slows down so Mateo can catch up with her.

"Are you okay?" He breathed deeply, his heart beating like a drum, not just from the running.

"Yes, I'm okay, but we need to hurry, the maid is going to tell my parents and they will stop at nothing until they find me, so lets go"

* * *

"You two will be staying in room thirteen, here's your key" the old innkeeper turns around

the the board of hanging keys corresponding with the rooms. As he hands the key to Mateo he wishes them a quick 'good night' and goes back to doing his innkeeper things. As they walk to their room Carmela a smile splits across her face and she looks at Mateo.

"What?" Mateo laughs a little at her at his companion's excitement.

"This is all so exciting! I've never been to an inn before!" she looked around at the dusty walls and old candle fixtures, and couldn't be any happier.

"I know, silly, remember we grew up together" he lightly punches her shoulder

"Oh hush, this is an important milestone to me" She lightly punches him back and laughs as they enter their room. Mateo sits down and Carmela looks around the room. The old fireplace that is in need of cleaning, the creaky beds, the window with poor insulation so it was always a little cold.

"First" Mateo gets Carmela's attention immediately, "We're going to need money"

"How do we get money here?" she asked.

"We need to go to the pub" Mateo states bluntly.

The duo enter the smoky, crowded pub, and sat down in a booth in a relatively secluded corner. When they sit down Mateo pulls a deck of playing cards out of his satchel.

"What are those for?" Carmela looks incredulously at the deck.

"Money" Mateo starts shuffling the cards, hoping it will catch at least someone's attention. "To get money here, we need to play Primero, a card game" he explains. "Did your parents teach you how to gamble?"

"No" Carmela sighs "my parents didn't teach me anything they deemed 'Low class'"

"How sad, if we're going to live like this, you need to learn how to play Primero" he sighs as he begins to explain the rules of the game.


End file.
